


The Other Side

by ErikaWilliams



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Ignis and Noct are such good friends, Love Confessions, M/M, Prompt Fill, Werewolf AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-05-15 18:57:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14796123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErikaWilliams/pseuds/ErikaWilliams
Summary: Ignis didn’t say anything, but he was grateful for his steady company.  Ignis had the first, second, and fourth months.  The two who walked beside him had both walked this road several times before and had come out the other side.  He could make it out too.  It was just that it had been six months already, and Gladio had plenty of time to wear that door down.  Or the window.  Was there even a window?  He couldn’t remember.  Probably not since it was under the Citadel and they didn’t want Gladio to have a second way to escape.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For tbehartoo, who requested I love you, muffled from the other side of the door.

He had known his luck wouldn’t hold out for ever. For six months, he had sighed in relief every time they drew straws and Ignis or Noctis got the short one. The odds were against him by this point. Gladio had gone ahead to the safe room to make sure everything was ready, and the three of them met up in their usual spot. He had the honor of holding the straws that month, holding them tightly in his fist as first Noct, who still felt guilty, and then Ignis, pulled their straws. His heart dropped in his stomach when he saw Ignis had also drawn one of the normal length straws, which meant he was left with the short one.

 

His hands shook as Ignis regathered the straws. Both of them were silent for a moment as he tried to process everything. He had known this night was coming. He had even been trying to mentally prepare himself for this since that first month. Twenty-seven nights a month he tried to forget about it, tried to go on like life was normal. Like they had never run into that creature. The rest of the month his head was filled with all the possibilities. Everything that could go wrong. He doubted things could go right. He didn’t see how that was possible.

 

Usually, this would be where they would part ways. Having all three of them show up had a tendency to make Gladio nervous. He liked to know who was going to be watching him before he was locked in the safe room. He didn’t think he was ready to be alone just yet, to make his way under the Citadel.

 

“I need to give something to Gladio anyway,” Noct said as he tapped Prompto lightly on the arm and started towards the Citadel. Ignis didn’t offer any excuses, but he came along with them just the same. Noct tried to distract him, talking about the latest update to King’s Knight and asking him if he thought the next Assassin’s Creed game would be worth the preorder. He answered him half-heartedly, his feet dredging across the pavement as they neared their destination. Ignis didn’t say anything, but he was grateful for his steady company. Ignis had the first, second, and fourth months. The two who walked beside him had both walked this road several times before and had come out the other side. He could make it out too. It was just that it had been six months already, and Gladio had plenty of time to wear that door down. Or the window. Was there even a window? He couldn’t remember. Probably not since it was under the Citadel and they didn’t want Gladio to have a second way to escape.

 

Ignis opened the door to the stairwell, and they descended into the darkness, using the flashlight from Noct’s phone as a guide. He wouldn’t smell fresh air again until late in the morning. Too late, he wondered if there were any snack down there. What happened if he got hungry? What happened if Gladio got hungry? What if he had to go to the bathroom? What if Gladio had to go to the bathroom? It wasn’t like he could take him for a walk or anything. He had so many questions, and now wasn’t the time to be asking. He should have prepared for this night, but he had kind of been hoping that it would never come.

 

Gladio was checking the hinges on the door when they arrived, and he turned when he heard them. His eyes widened and narrowed again when he saw all three of them coming down the steps. “What’s going on?” he asked, shifting his attention to the other two.

 

Prompto took the opportunity to check out what he could see of the safe room behind Gladio’s bulk. It was brightly lit, illuminating a few toys strewn across the floor. There was a large post in the center of the room, a bowl of water, a plush blue bed on the floor in the corner, and some fresh pads in the other corner. Well, that was one question answered at least. Gladio was still glaring at the other two.

 

“Prompto’s on duty tonight,” Ignis said as he walked over to the table and picked up the gun, loading it with the single silver bullet.

 

He didn’t want to think about that, so he moved over to a cage that held a family of black and white rabbits, the kind that was easily picked up at a cheap pet store.

 

“Aww, these guys are cute,” he said, putting his face down close to the cage and watching their little noses twitch. The biggest one stared back at him with its little beady eyes. “Hey, little buddies.”

 

“Yeah, one of you two needs to take his place,” Gladio said behind him, and Prompto straightened back up. That answered another one of his questions. Poor little bunnies, but they probably kept Gladio entertained for a little bit.

 

“We all agreed this was the best way to make arrangements,” Noct explained. It was fair, they left it up to fate when they drew straws. It was only luck that had kept him from taking a turn before now.

 

“Yeah, I thought we had an arrangement,” Gladio said, glancing pointedly in Ignis direction.

 

Ignis ignored him and handed Prompto the gun. “You only have the one bullet, so if he gets out, you better make it count.” They only had one bullet because if they missed, they wouldn’t need to worry about the second one.

 

“Don’t worry, champ,” Gladio said, putting his hand gently on Prompto’s shoulder. “I haven’t broken out of the room yet.”

 

“Lunafreya and Ravus sent their condolences,” Noct said, and Gladio took his hand away, leaving behind an imprint of warmth. He supposed maybe that the real reason why Noct had decided to come with him, to pass along the message. He was glad they were there though. It gave him a distraction while he tried to calm his nerves. Gladio was going to be alright. They had all survived the last six months. “Ravus also wanted me to give you this,” Noct said, holding out a malboro plush a little bigger than Gladio’s hand.

 

Gladio took it from him with a growl, wrapping his fingers around it a little too tightly. A low, long squeak filled the air and Prompto had to fight back the urge to laugh. Gladio wouldn’t appreciate that. Gladio tossed the toy into the safe room where it bounced twice, squeaking in terror each time it hit the floor.

 

“Let me know how much he plays with it so I can tell Ravus,” Noct informed him. He had been rather hoping the room would be sound proof so he could just imagine Gladio was chilling in there. Like any minute now they were going to tell him what this whole thing had been a long joke, culminating in this moment. Except he knew that Noct and Ignis would never be that cruel, and Gladio didn’t have the patience for something that took six months to get to the punchline.

 

“We should get things ready unless we want Gladio to be playing with our insides,” Ignis reminded them.

 

“Last chance for one of you two to make this right,” Gladio said looking pointedly between Noct and Ignis. Like he wasn’t even there. Because he didn’t think he could do this. Because Gladio thought he wasn’t strong enough.

 

“Hey, I can do this!” he said, looking boldly up at Gladio. If he couldn’t look at him while talking about it, then he wouldn’t be able to pull it off when the time came. But he knew this. The other two did not have his sort of training. “If you break out of that room, these two might stop you, but they’ll probably miss. I’m the only one you can trust to do this.”

 

“So, what, you’re just going to shoot me now?” Gladio growled down at him and he gulped. Gladio had requested this, that the only way to be sure he was stopped if he managed to break out of the safe room was for one of them to be waiting. So he couldn’t go and kill some innocent.

 

“If I have to,” he said steadily, refusing to break eye contact with Gladio. He could do this. He would have to. Besides, maybe Gladio wouldn’t get out. He hadn’t broken the door down yet. It should hold out for one more night.

 

“Fine,” Gladio growled, spinning on his heel to pick up the rabbit cage by the handle. “Do what you want.” He stalked into the safe room, pulling the door shut behind him.

 

“That seemed a bit harsh,” Ignis said as he moved to put the padlock on the door. “But probably necessary.”

 

“How much time do we got, Specs?” Noct asked. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought up the shooting thing; Gladio would still be upset about that come morning.

 

“A little less than six minutes.”

 

“You’ve got this, Prompto,” Noct told him, slapping him on the shoulder. “There’s coffee over there along with some snacks.”

 

“Remember, you can’t fall asleep,” Ignis reminded him, “and you can’t leave your post.”

 

“I got this,” he said with a nod, and he wondered who he was trying to convince that time. Gladio was on the other side of the door, and he knew Noct and Ignis didn’t doubt his aim. It wasn’t his aim they had to worry about. It was whether or not he would be able to pull the trigger.

 

“I know you’re going to be tempted, but don’t open the viewfinder in that door. You won’t like what you’ll see.”

 

“Got it.” So many things to remember, but he knew the most important one. If Gladio broke down that door, he was not to hesitate to put that silver bullet between his eyes.

 

“We’ll see you and Gladio in the morning,” Noct said before the two of them stepped out of the outer room, shutting the door behind them. They would padlock that door as well as the one at the top of the stairs that led to fresh air. He had thought it was overkill when Gladio had suggested it, but Gladio had insisted, so the other two had gone along with it. For better or worse, he was stuck down there with Gladio until morning.

 

He checked to make sure the safety was off before he sat down in the camping chair one of the other two had the foresight to put down there. Ignis said they about six minutes left, so he figured he only had about four more to go. He stared at the door. What was Gladio doing on the other side right now? Did he know how much time he had left? Could he feel the changes coming on already or did he not feel anything until the sun went down? He had heard him say that his memory was hazy about what went on during his transformation. Did the physical sensations come as a surprise every month?

 

He supposed he could ask Gladio, but he wasn’t sure Gladio wanted to talk to him at the moment. He had seemed rather irritated when he had gone stalking into the room. He was probably finishing whatever he needed to do to get ready for the long night. Releasing the rabbits from their cage. Taking his clothes off, he supposed. After all, he would want to keep them and he wasn’t sure they would be able to stand up to the transformation. Not that he had thought about it or anything. The door was metal, with the viewfinder tightly closed. Maybe they had this problem in the Citadel before since all they had to do was fix it up a little bit and install the numerous padlocks Gladio insisted on. He never asked how they had known that this room was down here.

 

He knew when the sun had gone down when the screaming started. That room was definitely not sound proof and he nearly dropped the gun as he half slid out of the chair. They could have warned him about that much at least. He couldn’t escape, not when they had locked him in there. It couldn’t last forever, could it? He didn’t know anyone human could make those noises. Because Gladio wasn’t entirely human. Not any more. He regained his focus, lifting the gun and aiming it steadily at the door. There were a lot of thuds and howls coming from inside that room, and the door shuddered under an impact from the other side. That door couldn’t withstand that type of assault from normal Gladio, let alone wolf-powered Gladio.

 

The door held though, and things eventually quieted down. He took a step closer to the door. He had been warned not to look. But what if the pain had gotten to be too much and Gladio had died? He could just sneak a peek, check to see if he was still breathing. But what if he wasn’t? He didn’t know CPR well enough to give it to Gladio if he was mostly human, let alone if he was something else entirely. He was two steps away from the door when he heard the dying squeals of one of the rabbits. He lowered the gun with a sigh. Gladio was alive and well, or at least as well as he could be given the circumstances.

 

He made his way back to the chair and dropped heavily into it. There were still several long hours left to go, and Gladio still had three rabbits to catch. He should have brought something to do; he hadn’t thought to bring his phone charger with him and it wouldn’t last the night if he was playing games. He brought his camera out as Gladio caught the second rabbit. His memory was getting pretty full, and he could stand to get rid of some of the older pictures. Some of them were almost a year old, and he didn’t need them anymore. Plus it was better than listening to Gladio catch his dinner.

 

He started going through some pictures, smiling at the memories, deleting others that seemed to just be duplicates with different backgrounds. How many pictures of Gladio did he need anyway? He was having a good time looking through his pictures, until he got to one of the four of them seven months ago. Their first camping excursion outside of the city. The night that monster had come after Noct. The night that Gladio had been bitten. Looking through the pictures did not seem as much fun any more, so he put the camera away. He didn’t hear anything screaming anymore, but he could hear the sounds of something large moving around. Occasionally he heard the squeak of a toy. But Gladio as a wolf must have been restless because he never seemed to stay in one place very long.

 

He started to tap his fingers against his knees. After a few minutes of that, he stood up and started walking around the room. Inside of the other room, he could hear the soft padding of Gladio’s paws as if he were doing the same thing on the other side of the wall..

 

“You’ve got me restless now too, Big Guy,” he said. He assumed that Gladio was no longer in any pain because he would have heard something. There was nothing else for him to do except pace and think about what was going on inside that room. What did Gladio look like right now? “I didn’t really know what to expect from tonight,” he admitted to the closed door. “I was so worried that you were going to break down that door and I was going to have to shoot you.” He heard Gladio whimper from the other side of the door, but he doubted it had anything to do with what he was saying. “I know what I said earlier, but I don’t want to kill you, Gladio. The truth is, I think I love you.” There was a disturbing silence from the other side of the door. “Gladio?” he tried again, but he didn’t hear anything. It was too quiet. Something was wrong with him, he just knew it.

 

They had warned him. They told him not to look through the viewfinder. That he wouldn’t like what he would see. But he had to check. There were no sounds from inside the safe room. Gladio could be dead. He could have choked on a squeaker from one of the toys. He should check on him, just to make sure he was still alive. He edged closer to the door. Just one quick look to make sure that Gladio was still alive.

 

He edged the viewfinder open quietly and peered inside. The biggest wolf he had ever seen stood in the middle of the room one leg raised as he peed on the chewtoy Ravus had sent them. Well, he probably shouldn’t be bothering him now. At least he was still alive. And it wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the other two had made it out to be. Yes, he was larger than an average wolf, and his golden eyes seemed to glow a bit, but other than that, he wasn’t that scary. Gladio as wolf turned and started chasing his tail.

 

“Way to ruin the moment, Big Guy.” He left the viewfinder open as he made his way back over to the chair. Gladio seemed rather content in his safe room, and he didn’t have to worry about him trying to break out.

 

At some point, he must have fallen asleep, because he just closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them, the door was open.

 

“Gladio?” he said, bolting up from the chair.

 

“Look who’s awake,” Noct said from the other side of the room.

 

“What happened to Gladio?”

 

“He’s fine. Ignis took him out for breakfast.” Noct handed him a bottle of water. “We can join them if you’re feeling up to it.”

 

“Yeah, sure,” he said, taking a swig of water. He could use some breakfast, and even though they done this for several months already, he wanted to see with his own eyes that Gladio was okay. And human again.

 

“So, did you talk to him?” Noct asked as they made their way up the stairs. “I got bored halfway through the first night and started talking to him.”

 

“A little,” he admitted. Not that he would ever tell Noct what they had talked about. That was between him and wolf Gladio. Wolf Gladio who didn’t understand a word of English.

 

“You know, it’s funny,” Noct said as they stepped out into the morning sun and he locked the door behind them. “Gladio swears that he doesn’t remember anything from his transformation, but he’ll remember snippets of things I’ve said to him during the night.”

 

“What?”

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Things were always a bit hazy the morning after a transformation. He usually woke up somewhere on the floor in his safe room, some part of his body numb because he had fallen asleep on it at an awkward angle. All his joints were stiff when he tried to stand up, and if he was really unlucky there would be bits of rabbit strewn across the floor. He usually had a splitting headache, and for the first couple of hours he had a hard time seeing straight.

He remembered little of the night before, and almost nothing from the time he had spent as a wolf. Sometimes as the day wore on, he would remember snippets of things. Mostly things said to him from the other side of the door.

Last night, Prompto was the one who was supposed to be watching him. Which reminded him, he had to have a long talk with Ignis about that one. He groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. He had to take a moment to catch his balance, his legs unused to working like that again. He tried to ignore the room around him as he made his way steadily to the high shelf where he had stored his clothes. One of these days the wolf was going to figure out how to get to them and rip them to shreds. They were exactly where he left them though. They were the only thing left in the room that hadn’t been touched, he noticed as he pulled his pants on.

Well, his clothes and the chew toy Ravus had sent to him. That seemed to be in the exact same place. Although it did look like it was drenched. Stupid wolf couldn’t even learn to be housebroken. Even the viewfinder in the door was open, and he knew that was always closed. He couldn’t have opened it from his side, especially not with his wolf paws. Which meant Prompto had to have opened it.

He strode quickly across the room, shirt still in hand and peered out into the other room. The other two were already there. Ignis was making coffee and Noct was sitting on the floor next to Prompto. Who was most definitely fast asleep.

He rapped on the door to get their attention, and Ignis walked over to him while Prompto didn’t even budge. Ignis unlocked the door and opened it for him. Prompto was still asleep, snoring softly, one hand sprawled across his stomach. His head was tilted back at an unnatural angle, and he was going to be really sore. He almost told Noct to give his friend a pillow or something, but there was nothing there to give him.

“What do you want to do about him?” Ignis asked him quietly upon catching him staring at Prompto. “He fell asleep on his watch.” He almost growled at Ignis that he wasn’t even supposed to be on watch in the first place, but he didn’t have the heart to accidentally wake Prompto.

“And he looked at you,” Noct chimed in helpfully.

“You looked too,” he pointed out. The difference was Noct had shut the viewfinder. He only found out because Noct had admitted to it two weeks later. Apparently, Noct had been traumatized by something he had seen, but Prompto seemed to be unfazed by it.

“Let him sleep,” he told Ignis. “I’ll talk to him later.”

“Right, we should get you to your check up,” Ignis responded. “Noct, will you lock up once you’re done here?”

“On it,” Noct said, even though he looked like he was ready to take a nap himself. “We’ll join you for breakfast at the usual spot?”

“Sounds great,” he said as his stomach rumbled. No matter how many raw rabbits he ate over the night, he was always ravenous in the morning. The sooner he got through with his check up, the sooner he could get to breakfast. He followed Ignis up the stairs and blinked his way into the sunlight. This was late for him to be coming back around. The doctor was probably getting worried about him.

“Aren’t you going to put a shirt on?” Ignis asked as they made their way to the car.

“Nah, the doctor’s just going to make me take it off again.” He opened the passenger side door and slid inside. “I think she likes me,” he said as he pulled the door shut behind him.

“She’s old enough to be your mother.” Ignis started the car.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” It wouldn’t take long for him to get his check up, and then they could join the other two for breakfast. There was something nagging at him from the night before, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it. Every time he thought he was getting close to it, his brain would get foggy.

“You’re incorrigible,” Ignis told him as he merged into traffic.

“Yeah, but what are you going to do about it?”

“Strongly suggest that you should be neutered next month,” Ignis said.

“You wouldn’t,” he said. He wasn’t entirely sure about that though. He shouldn’t push the issue too far unless Ignis did decide to bring it up with the doctor. It was a short drive to the facility, and they were expecting him by the time they arrived. A nurse led him into the exam room while Ignis stayed behind to take care of the paper work.

“You’re a bit late today, Gladio,” his doctor said as she came into the room, clipboard in hand. “Did you have a rough night?”

“I don’t know,” he said as she walked over to him and put the blood pressure cuff around his arm.

“You still having trouble with the memory?” she asked as she marked something down on his chart.

“Sometimes I remember bits of conversations if my friends talk to me.” Still didn’t remember anything from last night. He didn’t think Prompto would want to talk to him, especially if he had looked through the viewfinder. He was surprised he hadn’t used the gun on him then.

“Your heart rate is still a little elevated.”

“What does that mean?” She didn’t seem too worried about it though. She knew what was at stake here.

“Were you with a lady wolf last night?” she asked as she shone the tiny flashlight in his eyes.

“No. It was just me and… my friend.” She wrote something else down on her chart.

“I see Ignis is still driving you to your appointments. Did he watch you last night?”

“No,” he said, glancing briefly towards her nametag. “It was another friend.” If she didn’t ask for specifics, he didn’t have to give them to her.

“That’s good you have friends who are willing to help you. Have you told your family yet?”

“No.” He couldn’t tell Iris. He didn’t know how he was supposed to explain that to her. As for his parents, the King had probably already informed his father, and his mother was head of the werewolf control board. He didn’t see the point in having an awkward conversation with the two of them about something they already knew.

“So what do you tell them?”

“That I’m spending the night at a friend’s house.”

“You don’t think they’ll check up at Ignis’ house or the palace?”

“It’s another friend,” he said before swallowing hard. Was she digging for information on purpose or was she just trying to get him to have the talk with his parents?

“You’re doing fine, Gladio,” she said, taking her gloves off and dropping them in the garbage. “Just remember the usual precautions. Lock yourself up during the full moon, always use a condom, and don’t go around biting people.”

“I can promise two out of three,” he said as he followed her out of the room. Ignis was waiting for them at the front desk.

“Did you tell her about my neutering suggestion?” Ignis asked as they approached.

“No, but if he keeps up his bad behavior, I might have to take it into consideration,” she said with a wink in their direction.

“I haven’t even done anything,” he said to Ignis as he followed him out to the car.

“I’m trying to be proactive about the situation. If we neuter you now, maybe we can train you to be Noct’s lap dog.”

“I’m not going to be stuck as a wolf forever,” he countered. Someone was going to find a cure, or something, and they would all be able to go back to their normal lives. Ignis didn’t bother trying to reassure him. It was better that way. He didn’t like thinking about the whole wolf thing too much. Now, he wouldn’t have to think about it again until the next moon cycle. His head ached, like there was something just out of his grasp that he was supposed to be remembering. Maybe Prompto would remember some key piece of information from the night before that he would be willing to share once he joined them.

The usual place wasn’t anything fancy, but it was fast in serving up food which was what he wanted after a long night as a wolf. They sat down at an available table, Ignis across from the door so he could see when the other two arrived, and when the waitress asked if they were ready to order, Ignis told her they were waiting for some friends. He was ready to eat everything in the diner, but he supposed he could wait a little bit longer.

“So, are we going to talk about what happened last night?” he asked once they were in relative privacy.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ignis said defensively. He had to have known this was coming. It wasn’t like he was going to forget who had been watching him last night.

“Don’t play that game,” he warned. “We had a deal. Prompto was not supposed to be on duty.”

“Come now, Gladio, you can’t protect him from this forever.”

Like hell he couldn’t. They had been doing just fine for six months until Ignis had to go and ruin everything.

“This is a part of who you are now. Sooner or later he was going to have to face that fact. And you will too.”

He wanted to argue with him some more, to remind him that they had all agreed that it would be best for Prompto not to see him like that. Before he got that far though, a new scent piqued his interest, something that stirred a distant memory.

“They’re here,” he said, gaze fixated on a spot beyond Ignis’ shoulder.

“How do you know that?”

“I can smell Prompto,” he said. He couldn’t quite pick up Noct’s scent the same way, but he was sure the wolf knew all of them by now. “He smells delectable,” he growled before he could stop himself.

“I never thought I would have to say this, but please tell me you mean that in a weird sexual way and not in a you’re literally going to eat him kind of way?”

He could hear Prompto calling his name through a thick fog and the wolf that was normally dormant wanted to respond.

“Gladio, please tell me you’re not going to eat Prompto.” He probably would have sent Prompto somewhere safe if he thought that to be the case.

“I’m not going to eat him,” he hissed back. He still had self-control. He wasn’t going to eat him there at the diner at any rate. Besides, that wolfy part of his brain that had reacted to Prompto walking through the door was dormant again, like he had imagined the whole thing.

“Hey, guys, what are we talking about?” Prompto asked as he and Noct joined them.

“Food,” he said at the exact time that Ignis said “Prompto.”

“That makes it sound like Prompto is the food,” Noct said as he sat down next to Ignis.

That meant Prompto would be sitting next to him, and his body tensed as Prompto slid into the seat. With that close proximity, he was sure to set off those inner wolf senses again, but nothing happened.

“Is that his punishment for falling asleep on watch?” Noct asked him with a sly grin.

“Dude, not funny,” Prompto said with a slight squeak to his voice. There was that nagging memory again. “It was an honest mistake. It could have happened to anyone.”

“And yet it only happened to you,” Noct countered.

“Gladio has decided to let it go, given that it was his first night.”

“I did?”

“He did?”

“Of course. He’s not heartless. Now I think we all deserve a nice big breakfast.”

That was something they could all agree on. He had been up all night. Prompto had hopefully been up most of the night. He often wondered how much sleep the two that were off duty actually got. If it was one of them, he knew he’d be up all night worried about them.

They ordered their breakfast and the topic of conversation turned to lighter fare. None of them liked to be reminded of his condition once the full moon had passed. Which suited him just fine. Ignis was right about one thing though. He was going to have to accept the fact that this was part of his life now. Which probably meant he was going to have to tell his family. It also meant he was going to have to accept the fact that Prompto was involved, regardless of whether or not he wanted him to be.

He didn’t join in much of the conversation. He had four plates of meat with extra meat he had to make his way through. And he had a lot of thinking to do. Besides, if Prompto and Noct were to get really heated up about something, it was going to be hard to get a word in. Plus they didn’t seem to notice if no one else was in on their conversation.

Prompto had been right, too, much as he hated to admit it. When it came to making sure he didn’t break out in the middle of the night, Prompto was the best man for the job. He had better aim than the other two; hell, he had better aim than anyone else he knew. Prompto was the one person who could be relied on to put him down if he ever managed to break out. Not that he would ever ask him to watch him every month, even if it was their best bet. And that didn’t give Prompto the right to act so casually about it when he was only talking about shooting him in the head. He thought they were closer than that.

“Are you going to finish that?” he asked Prompto, pointing to the half eaten pancake and two strips of bacon left on his plate. He hadn’t even so much as looked at that plate in five minutes. He shouldn’t have ordered it if he wasn’t going to eat it.

“No, go ‘head,” Prompto said, nudging the plate closer. He transferred the remainder of the food from Prompto’s plate to his own. He wasn’t going to just steal the stuff from right off his plate. “You hungry or something, Big Guy?”

“I had a long night,” he said with a shrug. Which was something Prompto should have known, because he was supposed to have stayed up and watched him all night. But Ignis had already suggested that Prompto had been forgiven for that particular transgression, so he couldn’t bring it up now.

“Really?” Prompto asked. “Do you… remember any of it?”

There it was, that nagging sensation that he was forgetting something important as Prompto stared up at him doe-eyed. This was ridiculous, the only thing that had happened last night was that Prompto had fallen asleep on the job.

“I remember that I spent ten hours as a wolf,” he said as he turned his attention back to the remainder of Prompto’s breakfast.

“Well, I should be going,” Noct said, pushing himself up from the other side of the table. “Try not to eat all the food in the restaurant.”

“I’ll drive you,” Ignis volunteered, sliding out of the booth after Noct.

“I’ll come too,” Prompto said, starting to rise.

“You stay here,” Gladio said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him back down to the bench.

“Or I’ll keep Gladio company while he finishes,” he said, sagging down in the seat next to him. He didn’t mean to alarm him, but he did need to talk to him. And it would be easier to talk to him if the other two weren’t there. And he wanted to finish his breakfast before having this conversation. It would give him time to think about what he wanted to say. Not a lot of time. There wasn’t a lot of breakfast left for him to mull over. He did let go of Prompto’s wrist though, seeing as how he probably wouldn’t try to go anywhere now, and he didn’t want to make him more nervous.

He pushed the last bite of soggy pancake around the plate with his fork. His headache was coming back, but once he was done with this he could go sleep it off somewhere. He would feel better after a nice, long nap.

“You did good last night, Prompto,” he said as he continued to swirl around that little piece of fluff.

“No I didn’t. I fell asleep,” Prompto scoffed from beside him.

“Well, you did,” he admitted, because there was no sense in trying to deny that. Things had turned out alright, regardless of that little hiccup. “It was your first time; these things happen. Next time you’ll do better.”

“Next time?”

“Yeah, next time. You didn’t think you were going to get out of it that easy, did you?” he asked, bumping him with his shoulder. 

“So, you really don’t remember anything fro last night?” Prompto asked him hesitantly, without looking up at him.

“I remember that I owe you an apology. You were right. You really are the best person for that job.”

“I am?” Prompto said, head swiveling towards him. “I mean, of course I am. You can’t rely on those other two for…. You know...” he trailed off before looking away again. Seemed like he wasn’t as bold in the morning without the gun in his hands to back him up. “Nothing else from last night?”

Was Prompto… blushing? No, he must have been delirious from the lack of sleep. His head was still all messed up from the wolf time. “Is there something I should remember?” Prompto was the one who kept bringing it up. Was there something he wanted him to remember or something he was hoping he would forget? Six, did he do something horribly embarrassing when Prompto had opened the viewfinder? Did he take a picture? Was this a prelude to blackmail?

“No, it’s nothing,” Prompto said quickly. A little too quickly for his liking. But Prompto wasn’t providing the information, and the wolf wasn’t being very enlightening either.


End file.
